Anzura News

 

2010  ANZURA CONFERENCE

 

Worshiping and Serving our Father – Attaining the highest levels of self-realization.

Hobart, 1-4 October 2010

 
You are cordially invited to an exciting and sacred event! This year’s ANZURA conference will explore the themes of Worship – “the highest privilege and the first duty of all created intelligences”, and Service – “the goal of time and the destination of space”, and how together they can lead us to ultimate self-realization. The Urantia Book has much to say about these dual major components of God’s will. They are inter-related and interdependent and they hold the key to our personal salvation and the future transformation of our world.

For more information about the conference, click here>

 

 

 

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Parliament of the World’s Religions

 

3-9 December 2009

Melbourne, Australia

 

It is very exciting to announce that the Parliament of the World’s Religions will be held in Melbourne, Australia December 3-9, 2009. The Parliament is described as:

“… the world’s largest global interreligious event, held once every 5 years in a different city. The Melbourne Parliament will bring together more than 8,000 people from around Australia and across the world including renowned spiritual, religious, civic, academic, and political leaders, along with grassroots participants.” Parliament of the World’s Religions program overview

Urantia Book readers have attended the last three parliaments – in Chicago, Barcelona (Spain) and Cape Town (South Africa).  Anecdotal feedback from these participants is very positive and inspiring. There is little doubt that the Parliament represents a unique opportunity to share the teachings of The Urantia Book with truth seekers and other religionists.

The Parliament is organised by the Global Interfaith movement – encouraging “cooperative and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e., “faiths”) and spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional level with the aim of deriving a common ground in belief through a concentration on similarities between faiths, understanding of values, and commitment to the world.” (source: Wikipedia, “Interfaith”)

The theme of the 2009 Parliament is:

Make a World of Difference:

Hearing each other, Healing the earth

We would like to invite you to get involved in a gathering of religionists – an amazing opportunity to disseminate the teachings of The Urantia Book, and meet and socialise with other truth-seekers. We are expecting a large group of international readers of The Urantia Book – mainly from the USA – to travel down under for the Parliament. We need readers in Australia to play host to these visitors in our country, and share the Parliament experience with them.

 

What has already been organised?

• An exhibition booth has been booked for the entire Parliament, which will display and sell The Urantia Book to interested parliament attendees. We need volunteers to man the booth throughout the Parliament.

• A pre-conference ½ day workshop, followed by a social dinner, is being organised for Wednesday 2nd December. This will be a great opportunity for Australian and International readers to gather together and meet before the Parliament begins.

• We have applied to Parliament organisers to present a workshop on: The Urantia Papers – What’s Love got to do with it? [see below for brief summary of proposed workshop]  Speakers will be:  Nigel Nunn and William Wentworth.

This is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity to share the teachings of The Urantia Book with truth seekers from around the globe.  Not to mention a unique opportunity to learn more about the faiths of our brothers and sisters. 

I’m excited about this event, and encourage you to do what you can to be there. Registrations are being taken now – register online at www.cpwr.org.  Please contact me if you’d like more information, or would like to volunteer to man the booth.

Program Submission:

Unless we desire to make a difference, to help, to hear and to heal, we won’t. But from where comes such a desire? How does one move beyond old attitudes and narrow motivations? How do we get to that place where we become truly interested in each other? How does this interest become friendship, and ripen into Love? If we can answer this, we have found the key; for once we love someone, the desire wells up to help, to hear and to heal.

But from where comes this desire to love one another? It appears naturally among family and friends; it builds between neighbours who work together; and it begins between strangers once trust is won. And why is Love so powerful, so efficient at resolving the knots in our relationships? To understand this we need to know more about what and who we are.

The Urantia Papers, which we would like to introduce, offer new answers to these old questions. As well as providing a larger frame in which to think -- one that may satisfy scientists, philosophers and religionists alike -- the Urantia Papers reveal a fresh perspective on Personality. They trace for us the rise and role of Love, from the eternal core of the Absolute directly into the human heart.

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BACKGROUND TO WORLD PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS – INTERFAITH INITIATIVE

First held in Chicago in 1893, the Parliament of the World’s Religions brings together the world’s religious and spiritual communities, their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation.

As the world’s largest interreligious gathering, the Parliament will

• Convene religious and civil leaders and people of faith, spirit and goodwill from at least or more than 80 countries

• Foster interreligious, civil and cross-cultural dialogue on important local, national, and global issues

• Invite over 10,000 participants to work together for a just, peaceful, and harmonious society

• Have global appeal, covering social concerns including understanding and respecting diversity, peace and Indigenous reconciliation

• Engage worldwide religious, spiritual, secular, environmental, business and educational leaders to seek commitment and practical solutions through dialogue.

• Promote and encourages social cohesion within societies locally and across the world.

 

 

THE 2009 PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Since 1993, a Parliament of the World’s Religions has convened every five years in a major international city (Chicago 1993, Cape Town 1999, Barcelona 2004). Sponsored by the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, the 2009 Parliament will take place in Melbourne, Australia. A multi-religious, multi-lingual, and multicultural city, Melbourne offers an ideal location for the 2009 Parliament. Culturally vibrant and global in vision, Melbourne and Victoria are home to indigenous and Aboriginal spiritualities as well as the major world religions – Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism among others. Over 10,000 participants will come to Melbourne for the Parliament. The 2009 Parliament will turn worldwide attention to Melbourne as a destination city with international appeal. The Parliament will run for seven days with approximately 450 events including keynote addresses, seminars, conferences, debates, performances, concerts and exhibitions.

Parliament participants will work with others and within their own traditions to craft faithful responses to:

• indigenous reconciliation

• global poverty and global warming

• environmental care and degradation

• education of the young and the challenges of social disengagement

• voluntary and forced migration

• artistic expression and spirituality and

• the value of sports

 

In today’s world, understanding between people of different traditions is not optional. It is essential. The 2009 Parliament will give people of faith, spirit and goodwill new reason to say that peace is still possible.

 

 

 

WHY A PARLIAMENT?

‘There will be no world peace until there is peace among the religions.’ — Hans Küng

The Parliament engages religious and spiritual communities by:

• Focussing on Indigenous and Aboriginal spiritualities at the Parliament to honour these communities and encourage reconciliation.

• Facilitating cooperation between all of Australia’s religious and spiritual Communities.

• Enabling religious and spiritual communities to increase social capital by building lasting cross-cultural networks of understanding and cooperation.

• Challenging religious and spiritual leaders to craft new responses and solutions to religious extremism, wherever it occurs and increase human security.

• Helping religious and spiritual communities to confront homegrown terrorism and violence at the local level.

The Parliament educates for global peace and justice by:

• calling people of faith, spirit and goodwill to understand and respect differences.

• exploring religious conflict and globalisation as defining challenges in the twenty-first century and provides tools for responding effectively.

• creating cross-cultural networks that empower peace and reconciliation.

• helping participants identify religious and spiritual responses to local, regional, and international challenges to peace and justice.

• sensitising religious and spiritual communities to racial, ethnic and religious violence and provides strategies for defusing tensions.

The Parliament engages civil society by:

• effectively mobilising religious and spiritual communities for a positive response in times of national and global crisis.

• exploring the cultivation and governance of religious and ethnic diversity.

• sensitising political and religious leaders to their responsibility for national social cohesion.

• helping participants to deal with ethnic and religious tensions.

• educating civil societies to deal with global and regional issues.